19 August 2009

Hot town summer in the city

today was our designated NYC day. always gotta have one of those when we visit.

we decided to drive into the city since we had a museum pass and 4 people and the subway would be HOT and crowded. we lunched at sarabeths on madison ave and 92nd. good brunch spot. had fresh squeezed juice, a moist pumpkin muffin, and a huge goat cheese and spinach omelet. i couldnt leave without buying an overpriced elephant cookie...he had white chocolate dipped feet.

the real stop was the guggenheim. there was a big frank lloyd wright exhibit celebrating the 50th anniversary of the museum. the building was less than exciting from the outside but clean and peaceful from the inside. dave had requested this museum for this visit (we chose a different one each time). after getting to the end of the exhibit, i finally realized that wright designed the damn building. shit, that makes sense. a huge exhibit of his work on the anniversary of the building HE designed. but, having toured his falling water house and being familiar with his furniture designs i only had nature, wood, and straight lines on the brain. meh. i feel silly. but at least i learned something new.

(outside the gugg: dave, tony, amy)

unfortunately, having such a large wright exhibit meant that there wasnt anything else interesting to see at the museum. all the other famous works seemed to be put away. poo. at least the museum bordered central park so we went and enjoyed a bit of the jackie kennedy onassis reservoir. nice views of manhattan.

(amy and i by the reservoir. also of note, my new haircut was provided free of charge by amy, even though she was terrified while cutting. :) and, photo courtesy of tony. thanks!)

back at the car, our last stop in the city was a highlight for me. up in harlem they have a FANTASTIC grocery store called Fairway. i dont even know what to say but this place is cool. the variety of foodstuffs is incredible. the produce is gorgeous and the healthful choices are plentiful here. to see such a food lovers dream in harlem was so cool. allowing a poor neighborhood to have access to fresh, amazing food is such a powerful thing. and a great thing for public health. the food is also super cheap (our cartload full of quality stuff was less than $110, including beer!), putting almost anything in that place within reach of the majority of people in the area. kudos to fairway and everything that made that place set up shop there. i wanna come back!

(fairway is located under the henry hudson parkway; the start of the very long entrance into fairway, "like no other market." indeed.; less than 1/10th of the produce area; amy and i in the cold fridge sharing a ginormous fairway jacket; me, the jacket, and one of the many meat aisles. one can only assume they provide these jackets in such large sizes so that people wont steal them...)

back at the pink house, the three chefs prepared dinner. in the mean time, i snacked on my new DElicious earl grey tea cookies from fairway and relaxed watching "paris je t'aime." a film with 18 mini "films," 5 minutes in length, created by different directors. having been to paris a few times, some of these "films" were SPOT on. the last vignette, about a typical american woman exploring paris herself and trying to speak french, was FANtastic. dave and i absolutely loved it.

as the movie ended, dinner was ready. voila! amy, tony, and dave had contributed to concocting: grilled corn, citrus marinated chicken, mixed greens salad, and farm-harvested potatoes (amy and tonys sweat and tears went into the harvest at their local farm). yummy! we sat out on their back patio area enjoying the slightly cooled off summer night air. after clean-up, we walked down main street and took on o'donoghues tavern for dessert. the berry crumble pie had great crumble, but was a bit too sweet overall. the key lime pie was great! good ratio of crust to tart filling. such a good summertime treat.

currently living in helsinki, finland

this blog is about life since leaving michigan. my husband and i left our home state in 2008 for jobs, travel, and adventure. together we've lived in ann arbor for 9 years, france for 9 months, halifax for 3.5 years, and we've now lived in finland for 2.5 years. our daughter (X) joined us in 2010, and our son (Y) joined us in 2014, so they are now part of the adventure...